@raines80 - I used to have a worse (and cheaper) tablet. It was a good starting point, actually.

I use Wacom Bamboo One and Manga Studio EX. For everything else (comic related or not) I use pens and Photoshop, though. I also never used Manga Studio before I started this comic. I'm not sure what happened there, I just went for it. <shrug>

Yeah... this is actually my second tablet. My first tablet was another Wacom knock off that wasn't terrible, but somehow I misplaced it in the move. This tablet I have been using for about 2 months now... it is TERRIBLE.

The GIMP software isn't horrible. It just isn't very powerful. You can really tell in my word bubbles. The stroke path took pixelates a lot on curves.

I want to purchase new software and a new tablet, but my wife and I decided I should leave my job when my son was born so one of us would always be with him. I love being a stay at home dad, but it has really put a burden on our financial status so purchasing new equipment is just a pipe dream for now._________________

I also use Hb to 2b pencils, bristol board, and go to completion in watercolor, India ink, colored pencils, gouache, and whatever else could help me finish it. Then I scan it and prep it for online . May not be pretty, but I get me there . If you like to see my comic it's www.tanukiblade.com

I use a Wacom Bamboo tablet and Manga Studio Debut 4.0 for both intial layouts and the final inking/toning/lettering phases. For drawing the page, I use light blue col-erase pencils on 11x14 paper, and Copic multiliners for initial inking. (In essence I ink the page twice, the first time traditionally and the second time digitally).

I got one of those Pocket Brushes to try it out, but was surprised at how soft the bristles were. Not enough spring in 'em for my taste; everything I tried to do kept coming out mushy. Tried their Color Brush and had pretty much the same difficulty. Hm except their point *is* impressively sharp for a synthetic brush, and can do pretty good minute detail. The Pocket Brush sure has some nice ink in it, too (not so the Color Brush, that stuff took *days* to dry); I wish they sold it in bottles!

I hadn't heard of the Letrasets, I suppose because I've been looking at water-based rather than alcohol-based markers. What do you like about them?_________________

I also use Hb to 2b pencils, bristol board, and go to completion in watercolor, India ink, colored pencils, gouache, and whatever else could help me finish it. Then I scan it and prep it for online . May not be pretty, but I get me there . If you like to see my comic it's www.tanukiblade.com

You have some nice art, but your site layout is scaling it down, which makes it appear slightly blurry. For instance, of the latest page, Firefox says "700px ◊ 1,065px (scaled to 612px ◊ 931px)."

If you upload your artwork at the actual resolution at which it will display in the web page, it will look better and you won't be making your readers download unnecessarily large images._________________

CS2 and a Wacom Graphire4. It's near its deathbed, I think, and I've been very, veryyyy close to buying a new tablet a couple of times, only I don't like the feel of the new Intuos tablets (too rough with this 'stimulating paper' feeling) and my desk isn't wide enough for my keyboard and tablet as is... wouldn't fit the widescreen tablets, so I'm going to need some kind of space mod at the right height... hmmm.

But yeah, 100% digital creation here, except for the odd page I pencil by hand._________________

I reaaally like that pen; as far as brushes go it is fairly soft (though for a brush PEN it's not bad), but as you mentioned it holds a really nice point. XD So long as I keep a light touch (and I've got a fair amount of practice in with it so far), I find it nice to work with. I wouldn't switch to a dip pen or a real brush because I do so much of my work on trains or buses or in classrooms, the portability is a big concern of mine.

As for the markers... alcohol-based markers dry much faster than water-based media, but can still mimic certain effects provided you've got the right kind of paper (things like going over a darker colour with a lighter colour to push around the ink, and so on). I've used pretty much every brand of alcohol-based markers on the market and I find the Promarkers to be a good blend of quality ink and low cost (compared to Copics, which are high quality but cost a small fortune, or things like Design Touch or those crazy xylon Chartpak things that are cheap as hell but stink like crazy and bleed everywhere).

Unfortunately the Promarker line doesn't have the same colour range as the Pantone Trias made by the same brand (which were discontinue awhile back), even though they have the exact same barrel type... I don't find it to be that big a problem though, since they've still got enough range in the light colours to make almost any colour possible through blending.

Incidentally, I quite like that PH. Martin's bleedproof white ink! I've used it on previous comic projects (and still occasionally use it to add highlights to things).

SPEAKING OF WHITE. I also occasionally use a white [url=http://www.craftsudo.co.uk/acatalog/sakura_gelly_white.jpg=Sakura Gelly Roll[/url] to add fine white highlights on pages like this one (where there are little lightning-bolty-looking things shooting out of the middle part of the design). It's more opaque than most gel pens, though I have found it does yellow a little bit with age so I'm not sure I'd recommend it if archival quality is a huge concern.*

*(it's something I should be concerned with but I kind of missed that boat a couple of years ago when I spent three chapters thinking that black sharpie markers were TOTALLY FINE for spot blacks. For the record: they are not, and you will never get the stains out of your paper. :C )_________________

As for the markers... alcohol-based markers dry much faster than water-based media

Ah, I didn't know that. The water-based PITT markers I use generally don't feel wet, but I guess if I've like really gone over an area with one of the big ones a few times it is possible to get it on my hand for a minute or two. But they feel pretty fast compared to the ink I use. :)

I *want* to like brush pens. If only there was one with a real, European-style sable brush. There's the Kuretake No. 50 (and a few variants they make) which does have sable bristles, but from reading a few blog reviews it sounds like it's still got pretty soft bristles--maybe that's just the Japanese style or something?

I've been having a lot of fun smearing the Bleed Proof White around with my fingers lately--it's so thick it's kinda hard to work with a brush, but can give some dandy almost dry-brushy effects when moved with a finger. Like I was in a rush to do a page after spending all day on one that was just awful, so I gave it another try with a mushy old marker and a lot of white ink fingerpainting, and this nutty old thing came out:

A bit hazy, but it was fun to do. :)

Haven't tried a white Gelly Roll! On a whim at an art supply store I picked up a white Pentel Sunburst, which seemed *okay*...but then after reading somereviews online, found that Uni-ball's white Signo seems to be the preferred option--and it's waterproof white pigment ink to boot, neat. And it does seem pretty nifty, but I guess I'm not using these pens because a) they take longer to dry than the BPW, b) they tend to look like pen lines, complete with little valleys where the ball dragged through, and c) I work kind of big and they write tiny, so I wouldn't have all that much use for them, I don't think. But for fine white lines they would probably be a good option, yah.

I even went so far as to try some white (and black) "poster" paint markers:

Didn't like 'em much. :P They can put out a lot of pretty thick-ish paint, true, and they're water-based and water proof and stuff, but they do have a whiff of some chemically scent (the Sharpies hardly at all, but that Elmers one smelled awful) and I just can't help suspecting they're more toxic than I want. Besides which, the tips are awful: hard, spiky fiber-ish stuff of some kind that you have to push back into the pen for the "paint" to glop out around the sides of them. And they can come out and dry rather unevenly. Pretty yuck. There are oil-based ones that are supposed to be smoother and more opaque, but I still don't think I'd want to put that on a page for a comic._________________